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There is one thing that irks me about both Gnome Shell and Unity as far as DE's go, the fact that you have to stop what you're doing to bring up the global application launcher.
Wouldn't something like KRunner (opens in a little bar on top of the screen) be a far better way to approach this?
Just saying, while they are trying to make launching applications this way faster, the full screen launcher approach isn't the way to go.

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There is one thing that irks me about both Gnome Shell and Unity as far as DE's go, the fact that you have to stop what you're doing to bring up the global application launcher.
Wouldn't something like KRunner (opens in a little bar on top of the screen) be a far better way to approach this?
Just saying, while they are trying to make launching applications this way faster, the full screen launcher approach isn't the way to go.

I don't see the point of that. If you're launching a new application then you're presumably going to use it. Thus the focus naturally should go to finding and presenting that application, as it is not a distraction from an ongoing task: the new application becomes - in an overwhelming percentage of the cases - the current central task.
If the full screen launcher is correctly designed, then opening a top bar instead does not speed up the workflow one bit: stop doing whatever I am doing, hit a special key combo, type in a partial name, press enter, wait for new application to show up.
A top bar just looks different and imo worse, as it doesn't underline enough what is really happening workflow-wise.

Now if you have a problem with slow or confusing mode-change animations, then the solution is simply to fix them so that they are understated, quick and not in the way of typing for your application. Ask any UX designer: modal is bad when it is not clear enough in which mode you are, how did you get there, how do you leave that mode. But if modality is needed - and a user has only one set of eyes and one brain - then it should be evidently shown.

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And there it is again. I tried Gnome Shell, just to see what all the fuss is about. And I don't like it. Full stop.
And that now indicates that I have lost the ability to learn something new? Where did you get from? In the last three years I learned many DEs and WMs until I came to the point where I have found the one that fits my needs best. It is i3, not Gnome Shell. Because I can make it behave exactly like I want without any restrictions or the need for externally developed extensions. Because it supports my workflow instead of forcing me to a different one.

Then perhaps you were not the target of his post?

Originally posted by Intellivision

here is one thing that irks me about both Gnome Shell and Unity as far as DE's go, the fact that you have to stop what you're doing to bring up the global application launcher.
Wouldn't something like KRunner (opens in a little bar on top of the screen) be a far better way to approach this?
Just saying, while they are trying to make launching applications this way faster, the full screen launcher approach isn't the way to go.

Starting an application is, regardless of method, always a mental context switch. That the window of your previous task is still open does not really mean that you are able to simultaneously work with it while you are opening the new application.

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Well, I don't like Gnome Shell, I wouldn't recommend it to anyone for desktop use (I haven't tried it with touch interface, so can't comment on that) and i think that the Gnome developers are weird at best (actually I have pretty much the same opinion as this guy: http://igurublog.wordpress.com/2012/...ing-in-threes/)
Doesn't that qualify me as a Gnome Shell hater?

But even if not, there are several simply wrong statements in that guys post that I wanted to point out, beginning with the wide spread but wrong new=better.

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Wow thanks, I hadn't quite realised it was THAT bad for gnome 3.
For a DE that used to be #1 with over 40% that IS terrible. Its user base has more than halved

So some users left. Pawlerson's original claim that users prefer Plasma Desktop, Xfce, Unity, and Cinnamon over Gnome 3 was disproved by me nonetheless and the polls are mostly in line with the reasonable assumption that a large quantity of users stick with the default.

Considering that the self-proclaimed “most popular” distributions Ubuntu and Mint did not easily take the #1 and #2 spots for Cinnamon and Unity is a testament to Gnome 3’s popularity. After all, Fedora is the only major distribution that ships Gnome 3 by default and yet no where except the Mint poll Cinnamon is even remotely popular and in the cross-distro Pollator poll Gnome 3 beat Unity slightly.

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If the full screen launcher is correctly designed, then opening a top bar instead does not speed up the workflow one bit: stop doing whatever I am doing, hit a special key combo, type in a partial name, press enter, wait for new application to show up.

For the love of all that is holy will you people please stop using keybindings to attack a strawman? Gnome Shell's ability to be controlled by the keyboard is excellent, no one ever disputed that. It's directly inspired by Gnome-Do, so people who enjoy working that way can do it on any gnome based desktop, G2, GS, Cinnamon, Mate, Consort, etc. Not to mention that Cinnamon has this built in. You are not adding to this conversation about graphical GUI's, you are detracting from it. Your keyboard does not change so why is your key combo relevant? Can we please discuss the material differences between GS and other desktops, i.e, the overlay and lack of taskbar?

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For the love of all that is holy will you people please stop using keybindings to attack a strawman? Gnome Shell's ability to be controlled by the keyboard is excellent, no one ever disputed that. It's directly inspired by Gnome-Do, so people who enjoy working that way can do it on any gnome based desktop, G2, GS, Cinnamon, Mate, Consort, etc. Not to mention that Cinnamon has this built in.

You don't need a Gnome based desktop to use that functionality. dmenu runs on any DE/WM, i3 has improved dmenu functionality built in. This feature is neither Gnome related nor something new.

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For the love of all that is holy will you people please stop using keybindings to attack a strawman? Gnome Shell's ability to be controlled by the keyboard is excellent, no one ever disputed that. It's directly inspired by Gnome-Do, so people who enjoy working that way can do it on any gnome based desktop, G2, GS, Cinnamon, Mate, Consort, etc. Not to mention that Cinnamon has this built in. You are not adding to this conversation about graphical GUI's, you are detracting from it. Your keyboard does not change so why is your key combo relevant? Can we please discuss the material differences between GS and other desktops, i.e, the overlay and lack of taskbar?

Ok, fine.
I still don't see why <Slide pointer to top left> <Click large icon> is worse than <Take pointer to top left, click menu> <click menu item>.
They both make you switch from your current context. I don't think any system can get away with this.
They both make you do the same, or about the same, number of actions.
I am used to doing both, and there is really not that much difference. I find that launching my favourite apps is significantly faster with Gnome-Shell since the icon to hit is a lot bigger than when I used to have a quick launcher next to the panel. At least I don't accidently open the wrong app as often

I think I missed the taskbar for about a day. Now I find that I seldom use the taskbar in systems where it is available either. YMMV, but for me in Gnome-Shell a taskbar would be useless.

That example is vague because it does not describe if the apps are open or started. On gnome shell:
super key for overview and select the current open app you want.
Visually, trying to click on a task bar (smaller in some case) is a matter to guessing with several open apps.

Remember the way to open an application varies from individuals. You can easily assign your frequently used apps on the dasher (dock located on the left)